California seeks new one-drug execution method

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Sudhin Thanawala and Don Thompson, Associated Press
Updated 8:12 pm, Friday, August 25, 2017

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California correctional officials on Friday asked state regulators to approve a revised method of carrying out death sentences after years of delays that have stalled executions since 2006.

The new regulations would allow California's death row inmates to be executed using one of two different drugs or choose the gas chamber.

The state is acting after what critics say are years of delaying tactics by Democratic office-holders who have been in no hurry to resume carrying out the death penalty.
 
Corrections officials filed the revised regulations one day after the state Supreme Court upheld a voter-approved measure to speed up death sentences. That leaves one major obstacle before executions can resume: Getting approval for a new lethal injection method.

  
     








Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/California-death-penalty-fight-shifts-to-11957254.php

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

1. I am really hoping for a blanket clemency from Jerry Brown on his way out the door

Although I am skeptical that California will fare much better in obtaining lethal injection drugs than any other state and I doubt California will resort to dubious measures to obtain them, the State of California leaks like a sieve and any one participating in such things would be outed quickly.

[jmbar2]

2. Not a fan of capital punishment, but if you must...

...give them the option of an overdose of heroin or fentanyl.

[Warpy]

3. No kidding, fast and lethal

but reversible if the phone call comes in a nanosecond too late.

They are just terrified somebody might feel good on the way out. They need to talk to addicts who have survived overdoses. It's no damned fun, at all.

[Ligyron]

12. "They are just terrified somebody might feel good on the way out".

That is it exact.

[maveric]

8. I've been saying this for years.

It killed my brother in three minutes.

[weydowner]

4. Dinosaur watch part 574

In a hundred years time, people will read articles like this with the same horror and revulsion as we do now looking at articles about casual lynchings and KKK actions in the early years of the 20th century.
Except maybe in the USA; No wonder the Old Testament God favours you so much.
(that was deep irony)

Some odd chance that this article - at present - is right next to the pardoning of that evil old man in Arizona.

[tonybgood]

5. As someone who opposes capital punishment,

I always wonder about the drugs used for executions. Now they want a one drug injection? Hey guys; ever try heroin? We know it's lethal; we know you can die from a single injection; we know it's readily available. Is it perhaps they powers that be are afraid the last second of someone's life might be pleasant before it's extinguished? It just baffles me that they are so quick to kill but won't use what's available and effective.

[smirkymonkey]

6. I don't believe in it either, but if it must be done, why can't it be done peacefully

and painlessly. Couldn't they be put under like they would be in surgery and then administered a lethal dose? There has to be a more humane way, even if the act itself is inhumane.

[Doug the Dem]

7. When was the last time CA executed someone?

Not rhetorical: I really don't know.

[NurseJackie]

9. I found this with a google search....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_California#Executions_after_1976

[Doug the Dem]

10. Thank you

My own Google is messed up, and I refuse to use Bing, those bastards!

[The_jackalope]

11. I'm utterly opposed to capital punishment, but if it's going to be done

My preferred method would be inert gas asphyxiation with nitrogen. It's fast, sure, painless and easy to manage. It's the preferred method of suicide in countries where pure helium is available at party stores.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

13. As others already pointed out, that's exactly why

it won't be used (heroin and other opiates have legal problems since you can't obtain or handle then for the purpose of killing someone - it's illegal). Politicians - even in the Republican-free state of California - are too afraid of looking "soft on crime" to use a painless killing method.